GOP lawmakers in two states are trying to ban Pride flags in schools

Republican lawmakers in Florida and Tennessee are trying to ban LGBTQ+ Pride flags in schools.

This week, Tennessee state Rep. Gino Bulso (R) introduced House Bill 1605, which would prohibit public and charter schools from displaying “any flag other than the United States flag and the official Tennessee state flag.”

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While the bill does not specifically mention Pride flags, Bulso told The Tennessean that he was encouraged to file the legislation by parents and a school board member in Williamson County, Tennessee, who opposed displaying rainbow and Trans Pride flags in the area’s public schools.

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“I’ve heard the same types of issues from legislators in other counties,” he said.

Bulso suggested that Pride flags represent “political statements” and do not belong in schools.

“A school should be a place where a child goes to learn, not a place where a child goes to be indoctrinated,” he said. “We’re simply trying to remove political statements that either educators, administrators, or others want to make in a school setting so that the school can focus on educating the child, and not getting involved in these kinds of political issues.”

Bulso claimed that the bill was not intended to punish students who display Pride flags on their backpacks but to prevent “authority figures from injecting into the classroom these political statements.”

Meanwhile, in Florida, state Rep. David Borrero (R) introduced similar legislation banning flags “that represent [sic] a political viewpoint, including, but not limited to, a politically partisan, racial, sexual orientation and gender, or political ideology viewpoint.” Unlike the Tennessee bill, Florida’s House Bill 901 bans such flags not only from schools, but from government buildings and universities as well.

According to Florida Politics, this is the second time Borrero has introduced legislation aiming to ban Pride flags. A previous bill filed in February included an exception for certain flags, including the Confederate flag. It was quickly withdrawn from consideration.

As The Tennessean notes, more than 40 local bans on Pride flags have been instituted across the U.S., mostly in California, Wisconsin, and New England. In response, the National Education Association has urged local school boards to explicitly designate the flags as symbols of diversity, equity, and inclusion and not as political statements.

In a February 6 open letter, the American Civil Liberties Union called such bans “viewpoint discrimination” that violates the First Amendment. “Policies banning the Rainbow Flag or any political material in schools are not viewpoint neutral, as the removal is premised on the message the Rainbow Flag conveys. Such action, absent any evidence of substantial disruption, is contrary to the First Amendment protections afforded to students within public schools,” the letter read, citing the Supreme Court’s 1969 decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District.